A. No. You are entitled to a 6-month grace period during which no payment on your student loan is required. If you start paying early, you are still not obligated to make a monthly payment until the grace period expires. After that, you must make your minimum monthly payment.

Q. What if I have already used up my grace period and then return to school. Do I get another grace period?

A. No. Once you have used your grace period on a particular student loan, you will not get another one for that loan. While in school that loan payment will be deferred, but it will enter repayment immediately after you fall below half-time enrollment. However, any new loans that you acquire are entitled to a 6-month grace period.

A. Consolidating offers the benefits of a single monthly payment with one loan servicer, a fixed interest rate and usually a lengthened repayment term. A longer repayment term may result in lower monthly payments, but will ultimately increase the amount of interest you will pay. The interest rate is based on the weighted average of the interest rates of those loans being consolidated rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of 1%, not to exceed 8.25%. There is no origination fee for a consolidation loan. Carefully consider the pros and cons before consolidating since such loans do not have grace periods and will immediately enter repayment. For helpful advice visit: http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/borrower/bconsol.html